Remo D'Souza: How did a background dancer turn into a successful Choreographer-cum-Director?
RemoD’Souza is a reputed Indian Choreographerand director of the Indian Film Industry. He was born on 2 April 1974 inOlavakkode, which is located in the Palakkad district of Kerala. He was namedtheir baby Ramesh Gopi by his parents K.Gopi, and Madhviyamma. K.Gopi being an Air Force officer, wanted his son topursue the same and thus got him admission to Air Force School in the Jamnagardistrict of Gujarat. During his school time, Remo D’Souza was interested inathletics and has received prizes for 100-meter races. But as the studentreached 12th standard, the teenager understood that the lad has a differentdream in his eyes. The boy desired to be a dancer, and for which he skilledhimself with numerous types of dance via several movies and music videos. Theteen cherished to mimic Michael Jackson and as well as considered the legend ashis guru. The emerging artist was inspired by the motivational stories of famous personalities who were associatedwith dance.
The youngster would create his own choreographyby adding new steps. At the age of 19, the boy expressed the desire to have adancer career in Bollywood to his parents. The father of the teenager opposed,but his mother supported him to fulfil the wish. Subsequently, Remo D’Souzawent to Mumbai for building his career, but during the initial days, thedreamer had no income. The only thing he had was the generous family with whomthe man lived. Then, he began dance classes with the name Super Brats at ChurniRoad for his living. His first-class had only four students, and slowly thequantity elevated with the passing day. Later along with two of his friends, the emerging dancer started twobranches, one at Borivali and the other at Andheri. The young guy struggled toget a smash in a movie for taking one step towards his motivational story, and hence, in 1995, he got the chance as abackground dancer.
One day, Remo D’Souza went tochoreographer Ahmed Khan for an audition and requested the senior artist toselect him based on his performance and not his skin colour. Fortunately, hewas chosen and then became the assistant of Ahmed Khan. But soon, Remo D’Souzaparted from his senior to try choreography for music videos. In 2000, theartist laboured as a choreographer withinside the movie Dil Pe Mat LeYaar. The dancer made his directorialdebut with a Bengali film called Lal Pahare’r Katha in 2007. In 2011, hedirected his first Bollywood film F.A.L.T.U. with gifted casts, consisting ofRitesh Deshmukh, Arshad Warsi and Boman Irani. Later, the creative man went onto direct films like ABCD- Any Body Can Dance, ABCD 2, The Flying Jatt, Race 3and Street Dancer. The talented dancerhas also produced films that include DOA: Death of Amar, Nawabzaade and StreetDancer 3D. The star has acted in movies like Pardes, Aflatoon, Meenaxi: A Taleof Three Cities, Entertainment and Zero. Moreover, the skilful choreographerhas worked as a judge in several dance reality shows like Dance India Dance,Jhalak Dikhhla Jaa, Dance Plus and Dance Champions.
RemoD’Souza won his first award in 2011 for the film Enthrian, and the prizewas titled Best Find of the Year. In2014, he received numerous awards for choreographing the song Badtameez Dil ofthe movie Yeh Jawaani Hai Deewani from Screen Awards, Zee Cine Awards andProducer's Guild Film Awards with the title of the Best Choreography. Then, the talented man won the National FilmAward, Producer's Film Awards and International Indian Film Academy Awards forthe Best Choreography for Bajirao Mastani and in 2016. He achieved the Best Choreography title inthe sixty-fifth Filmfare Awards for the film Kalank in 2020.
Remo D’Souza had a heart attack on11 December 2020 and was admitted to Kokilaben Hospital, Mumbai. Prays of hisfans and family helped him to recover quickly. Soon after recovering from hisillness, and plans to provide fantastic movies and dance numbers to IndianCinema. The motivational stories offamous personalities like him help us to chase our dreams in any situation.The journey from being a small-town boy Ramesh Gopi to a talented dancer RemoD’Souza is an inspiration for thosewho have a strong determination for accomplishing their desire.
